


Guitar Confession

by Bleck



Category: Animorphs - Katherine A. Applegate
Genre: Bullying, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-01
Updated: 2018-02-01
Packaged: 2019-03-12 09:04:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13544100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bleck/pseuds/Bleck
Summary: Rachel saves Tobias from some bullies and then they hang out.





	Guitar Confession

"Like I'm gonna believe that." The bully sneered. "What do you think I am, Toby, some kinda idiot?" 

Tobias wasn't about to tell him the truth when he and his friends were currently shoving him up against a locker. Someone's lock was digging into his back and he would've been dizzy from getting his head smacked against the locker every time Jeremy punched him in the gut. Tobias had plenty of experience being punched though, much but not all of it up against a locker, so he knew how to minimize the pain. Minimize being the key word because he was definitely walking away from the experience with bruises. Lucky him. 

"Gimme your money, ya freak." Jeremy said, nodding his head to his flunkies, Frankie and Ryan, who squeezed Tobias' arms harder against the lockers.

"I don't have any." Tobias protested again, trying not to yell. It would only make it worse. Crying was definitely out of the question unless he wanted to end up in the hospital.

Jeremy sucker punched him in the stomach.

"Ah!" Tobias yelped. Minimizing the pain was starting not to work. There were only so many punches, arm twists, and shoves into metal that he could take and he was starting to approach his limit. "I don't have any money! Please leave me alone!" They already went through his backpack, they knew he was telling the truth.

"Hey! You don't tell me what to do, you twerp. Now shut the hell up and stop yellin'." Jeremy sneered. "I'll give you something to yell about."

"You sound like someone's dad." Ryan chuckled.

"Not his." Frankie laughed and the other two joined in. Tobias had heard the joke before and he didn't think it was any funnier this time. "Probably reminds him of, like, his uncle."

"I bet he says that a lot, yea. I know I never burned Toby here with a cigarette. But who knows, it's so hard to keep track of everyone who wails on him." Jeremy said, tapping his hand against Tobias's cheek. 

He tried not to flinch. Tobias could hear someone walk down the side hall they were in, maybe drawn in by the noise. The odds of the person doing anything to help were, in his experience, nonexistent.

"Leave him alone, Jeremy." Someone, a girl by their voice, said to their right. She spat his name out like it was a curse or like it left a foul taste in her mouth.

"What are you gonna do, huh?" He scowled, looking over his shoulder. "Cry to Mommy?"

"I'll kick your friggin' teeth in, that's what. And yea, maybe I will tell my mother. My mother the lawyer. Who knows every prosecutor in the county. Maybe I will tell her. After I kick your teeth in. Now leave him alone." She said.

Whoever she was, Tobias thought she sounded serious. About both threats. They must have thought so to because Jeremy, still scowling, shook his head and Tobias was mercifully released. "We were just about done here anyway. Let's get outta here." Jeremy said, trying to save as much face as possible. He shot her another dirty look as the three of them left.

The girl returned it so Tobias took the second she was distracted to rub his eyes. He'd been trying not to cry but that didn't mean he hadn't been close. When she turned to look at him, Tobias got his first good look at her. 

He instantly knew she was Rachel even though he'd only ever seen her pass briefly in the halls. Everyone knew she was the prettiest girl in school. That and that her mom was a lawyer, Tobias wasn't sure what kind though. But it was obvious Rachel was pretty. Very pretty.

"Hey. Are you ok, Tobias?" She asked, angry still but he could tell it wasn't at him. He got enough angry looks to know the difference.

"Uh, yea. It's ok. I've had worse." Tobias had meant it as a joke but Rachel went back to scowling. "How do you know who I am?" 

"I've seen you around." Rachel smirked, crouching down to help him get everything back in his bag.

"Oh." He said, failing to hide his blush.

"So, uh, what're you doing after school?" She asked, inclining her head a bit to get him to follow her. It wasn't like he had anything else to do.

Tobias walked a few paces behind her, enough to be close but far enough that she could deny walking with him if she wanted to. They took a few turns down halls and they quickly found themselves in the band room. Tobias could tell because of the sound proofing. And all the instruments. He had music but it was in a regular classroom, he'd never been down this hallway before. Rachel dropped her bag and walked over to a group of guitars.

"So, you never answered. What're you doing after school?" Rachel asked, looking at him over her shoulder as she trailed her hand over the necks of the guitars. 

Tobias hadn't answered because he had difficulty believing that she was talking to him, let alone actually interested in what he had to say. And because he was still really sore. He'd thought she was just asking to be polite. "Uh, nothing. I was going to stay after with Mr. Feyroran but something came up. So I was just walking around." He shrugged and winced. His shoulders were going to hurt for days. He sat down cross legged on one of the padded benches and sat his bag at his feet.

"Do you know how to play guitar?" She asked, picking one seemingly at random. Tobias couldn't tell them apart, they all looked the same to him. 

"No." 

"Cool." Rachel said, sitting down cross legged as well with a foot or two of space between them. She turned to face him. "It means you can't make fun of me when I mess up." 

"Oh. Ok." He said. Tobias had had no intention of doing that. Not only would it have been rude but it wasn't like he needed another reason to be beat up, let alone for offending the most popular girl in school. 

"What do you like to do for fun?" She asked, picking at each of the strings with her finger.

"Uh, nothing really," Tobias shrugged. 

She raised an eyebrow. "You can't possibly be less interesting than my meat headed cousin." 

"Jake isn't a meat head." Tobias said. Aloud. To Rachel. He almost gulped.

Rachel smiled, actually smiled, at Tobias. "Yea, you're right. He's ok. But c'mon, you have to be more interesting than him or any of his friends. I know you are." 

It was Rachel's turn to blush. She hid it better than Tobias had.

"You think I'm interesting?" Tobias asked. He wasn't mocking her, he was genuinely surprised. And dubious. And very confused.

Rachel shrugged as she started to strum the guitar. "Sure." Something about the way she said it made Tobias believe her, she really thought he was.

"I don't know. Watch tv, go the arcade, that's about it." He said.

"Seriously?" She asked, looking at him like she knew he was forgetting something obvious. But Tobias knew she couldn't know much about him.

"Uh, well, I draw sometimes." Tobias said. "I'm not good at it or anything. I like it though."

"Cool." Rachel nodded but Tobias wasn't sure if it was because of what he said or because the guitar was in tune. "What do you like to watch?"

"Uh, Star Trek, Doctor Who reruns, The X-Files, Party of Five-"

"Oh! I love Party of Five. Awesome." Rachel grinned.

Tobias couldn't help but smile back. "What're you doing? On the guitar?"

"Just screwing around. Why?" She asked. "Have a request?"

"No." Tobias shook his head.

"That's ok. I've been practicing a song anyway. Care if I play it? Again, you can't make fun of me if I mess up." She told him.

"I won't." He promised. "I probably won't even notice." 

"You might, it's a famous song." Rachel said. "It's on the radio a bunch."

Rachel began strumming quickly on her guitar and while Tobias didn't know the song, he liked it. Rachel played faster and smiled at him again. "I can't sing or anything but do you know what it is?"

"Maybe? That song by Savage Garden?" He asked.

"Yup." Rachel smiled.

Tobias smiled back at her, again. He hadn't smiled this much in one day in a while. He couldn't recall the lyrics exactly but he was definitely going to look them up later. He thought it was a love song but that couldn't be right, why was Rachel playing it for him?

All of a sudden, the bell rang. They had five minutes left before the buses came. 

"Crap. In the middle of a song to." Rachel said.

Tobias had nothing to say to that.

"Well?" She asked.

"What?"

"What did you think?" Rachel asked, getting up and putting the guitar back. 

"Oh. I liked it. It was nice and it was really cool to watch you play. Thanks." Tobias smiled first.

Rachel grinned even bigger than last time. "Awesome." She picked up her bag and almost skipped to the door. "It's called Truly, Madly, Deeply. I learned it for you." 

And then she was gone.


End file.
